


lovely things (but you're the loveliest)

by iztopher



Category: Aveyond
Genre: (the relationship status changes between chapters; you pick which ones), Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, though i don't really distinguish between the two very well because that's how i roll
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iztopher/pseuds/iztopher
Summary: Mel, Stella, falling in love, and sharing gestures of affection. Or: the Aveyond 3 attraction points rewritten to be for Mel/Stella.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I headcanon Mel as nonbinary and using multiple sets of pronouns, so this fic will alternate between them! Since I'm not sure how familiar a lot of the fandom is with that, I'm going to keep it consistent between each separate chapter for clarity's sake. 2) The chapters on this one are gonna be pretty short, for the record! I don't anticipate any of them hitting 1k. 3) Title is from Prettiest Thing by Oh Darling!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gheledon love sonnet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She/her Mel for this one!
> 
> Shoutout to Aco and Danny for beta-ing!

Mel sits scowling with her shoulders hunched forward and her legs crossed on top of her bed in the Gheledon inn. She crosses her arms – pointedly – and stares ahead of her at the wall.

“Mel,” Edward says from the side of the room she’s deliberately not paying attention to, “are you going to be mad at me all day? All I did was buy you a poem!”

“I was mad at you all morning, so yes.”

He groans. “I just don’t understand why you’re so upset about this. I was trying to be thoughtful!”

“You should have thought better, then,” Mel says, rapidly turning her head to glare at him. “I know you don’t feel that way about me. And I know that because you read this damn sonnet to me before even reading it over once yourself. You didn’t even get the rhythm right. Honestly, Edward, isn’t that part of your princely education or whatever?”

Edward grits his teeth. “Would you just–”

“Both of you, relax!” Stella, previously rummaging through the group’s belongings on the floor, stands up and rests her hands on her hips. She’s the tallest of the three, and hopes it briefly grants her some authority. “I’m not going to let you two ruin each other’s days over this anymore. Mel. Edward was trying to do something nice for you. He wanted to be sweet. You understand that, right?”

“He was being inconsiderate,” Mel retorts. “Like he thinks I’m going to believe some generic nonsense about how beautiful I am. First of all, I’m not. Second of all, Stella, the sonnet mentioned ‘auburn locks’.” Mel flicks her decidedly black bob back and forth with an irritated roll of her head. “Do these locks look auburn to you? He should have read it to himself!”

“They don’t,” Stella agrees, slowly. “Which brings me to my next point. Edward, Mel’s hurt because you tried to compliment her by paying someone else to come up with something to say. She doesn’t appreciate the gesture because it doesn’t feel sincere. That makes sense to you, yeah?”

“I guess,” Edward says. “Yeah, that makes sense. I’m sorry, Mel. When Lyra offered to let me read the poem to someone, I just thought you’d appreciate the gesture. I guess I was pretty careless.”

Mel looks at Edward now. Stella thinks she looks less upset, but barely any less tense. Her crossed arms relax slightly, but she keeps her grimace. “…I’m sorry, too. It was a bunch of noble bull, but I didn’t have to be a jerk about it.”

Edward beams. He hops over to Mel’s bed, sitting down beside her. “Truce, then?”

Mel’s expression flickers, and she matches his smile. “Yeah, truce.”

“So we’re good!” Stella says.

“I’ll come up with it myself, next time,” Edward adds.

Mel nods. “Ha, yeah. Good idea.”

…

“Hey, Mel, could I ask you about something?” Stella asks, sitting down next to her in front of the waterfall.

Mel skips another stone across the pond. Edward’s off somewhere, asking around about advice for augmenting Excalibur, and she’s elected to spend her morning pretending she isn’t on the run from an evil vampire intent on using her to enslave humanity before they head out to Naylith.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Yesterday… did you say you’re not beautiful?”

She laughs, throwing her next rock and watching it dance across the water. “I mean, yeah. Have you seen me?” She glances at her. “Don’t worry about my self-esteem, Stella, it’s not a bad thing. I’m happy with it. Being bland is helpful in my line of work. And I like how I look, anyways.” She snorts. “I just know no poet is going to write about how gorgeous I am, and no prince has any business pretending otherwise.”

Stella can’t help herself. Mel’s laugh, however brief and derisive, is infectious. She giggles. “I get you.” She glances away for a second; Mel thinks she sees her chew on the side of her mouth. “I just don’t agree.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, right?” Stella looks back at her, a little more certain in her smile now. “I think you’re beautiful, Mel.”

Mel chucks her next rock with a little less than perfect aim. Instead of its effortless glide before, it plunks into the water. “You’re just saying that.”

“I mean it! Maybe it’s just because I know you, so you couldn’t possibly be plain to me, but I mean it.”

“Thanks,” Mel squeaks out.

Then she looks at Stella – taller than her, and fat, with a soft chest and squishy pair of arms that make for amazing hugs. She looks at her pastel, curly hair, her dark skin with scattered freckles that remind her of constellations, her deep purple eyes. She looks at her awkward, bright smile, the way her cheeks raise as she makes it. She wonders how awkward her own face must look right now.

Then she thinks about how ridiculous it is she’s looking at her like she needed any confirmation.

“You’re beautiful, too.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stormbend flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They/them Mel this time!
> 
> Thanks to Ishti for beta-ing!

“Flowers for sale! Flowers for sale! You there, young man, would you care to buy some flowers?” Mel groans and stops in their tracks as Edward, yet again, proceeds to hold the whole party up by buying something he doesn’t need. They had almost just reached the port, too. Mel can see the ocean glittering a few more blocks in the distance.

And then their view is blocked by Te’ijal bounding towards it, yanking a reluctant-but-definitely-still-running Galahad behind her. Mel stumbles back as the pair rushes past them. _Huh,_ Mel thinks, _maybe she has the right idea,_ and they leave Edward to his devices and jog out towards the shore.

When they approach, they slow down, walking the final steps to the water. The ocean is beautiful. Mel tries to remember if they’d ever seen a beach before, but wracking their mind brings back nothing. Harburg was surrounded by dense woods, and Thais was straight in the center of the mainland. Walking through the Thial Mountains, they’d seen water far down below, but it was framed by sharp gray cliffs, and not particularly inviting looking.

It looks inviting now. Te’ijal is unlacing her boots and rolling up the legs of her pants in preparation of striding in; Galahad stands a few yards away, apparently content remaining in his armor. Stella’s found a spot to sit and is tracing her fingers in the sand, making patterns on the shore. Edward is tapping on Mel’s shoulder.

They startle and turn around, only to be met with a bouquet of flowers pushed out towards their chest. The flowers are red and yellow and orange, firey and bold, and Edward is grinning like he’s pleased with himself.

“I got these for you.”

“…I can see that.”

“I thought you’d like the colors! See, we’ve got orange, like your bow, and red and yellow, which, um, go nicely with orange.” He shakes the bouquet in front of Mel.

They take it awkwardly. “Edward… you shouldn’t have.”

“I know I really screwed up the last gift, so I wanted to make up for it.”

 _Okay, that’s a little sweet._ They smile. “Flowers. So original.”

“I, uh-”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Edward gives an exaggerated bow, and talks in that obnoxious voice he uses when Mel makes fun of him, to be in on the joke. "You're very welcome, my…” he frowns, adjusting his script, and settles on, “my dear."

"Ugh." Mel laughs and loops their arm in his. "You're the worst best friend ever, you know that?"

"Was starting to get the idea, sure."

"Thanks for holding off on the ‘my lady’ nonsense."

"But of course."

They snicker. "All said, flowers make me sneeze, so I'm going to go give these to Stella."

"Sur- wait, what?"

But they've already unlatched their arm, and skip down the sand to find her. She's moved a little further out, leaving a trail of butterflies and hearts on the sand behind her. Mel is careful not to tread on them and erase her hard work. They plop themselves down beside her, knocking their shoulder against her side. "Hey."

It catches her attention, and she looks over. "Hey! Oh-"

Mel hands over the flowers. "I got you these."

Stella's quiet for a second, eyes wide, glancing between Mel's face and the bouquet as she takes it gently. A soft grin brightens her face. "Really?"

"Well, obviously. But also, not quite. Edward gave them to me, and I figured you'd appreciate them a lot more."

"You don't have to do that! You can keep them - we can share-"

"I want you to have them.” _They make me itch_ wasn’t really the smoothest rationale, so Mel offers, “Really! Your face lit up when you saw them."

"That's very sweet of you, Mel. Thank you."

"Any time." Mel grins.

Stella ducks her head just slightly downward and plants a peck on their cheek.

They're sure they've turned red.

Then Stella stands up slowly, dusting the sand from her dress. With the arm not holding the bouquet, she reaches out to Mel.

"Where are you going? I just got here!"

"We're supposed to be in Stormbend for a few nights, right? I can keep these at the inn. I want to buy a vase!"

"That's ridiculous. You're ridiculous." Mel says, but they take her hand and let her lift them up anyways.

"Forgive me for wanting to appreciate my gift. Especially after you did such a poor job of it."

"Hey now!"

Now solidly up, Mel goes to let go of Stella's hand, but she's locking their fingers before they get the chance. They look up at her as if to ask about it, but she's just continuing the conversation without a care in the world, a warm smile on her face. "I'm teasing you. It's very kind."

Mel squeezes her hand, lies through their teeth about kind being their middle name, and lets Stella lead them back to town.


End file.
